Dragonfly

My side deck has been a flurry of dragonfly activity. They land on my coffee cup. They twit around my trumpet vine. They flit around and I love them! They are mysterious to me. Beautiful and secretive.

I have been busy working on my mandala quilt. I machine quilted it.  I'm not sure what I will do next. I know I will add crystals to it. Our mandala quilts will be on display at Blue Pearl Yoga from September 20th, the opening reception, and through the next month. I encourage you to take the time to visit. Blue Pearl Yoga is housed in the old Mason Hall on Main St. It is something to see.

I saw precious Mela Friday night. She is a sweetheart. I love that little girl!

I have learned:

1. "Damages"....very good. Glenn Close on Netflix.
2. Stuffed hot peppers....mmmmmmmm
3. Garlic. MMMMMM!
4. Woodchuck peeped up while I was sitting on my little deck yesterday...he realized I was there and ducked back down into his hole. Ugh. I must keep on keepin' on killing the homey's. Well Ted will. 
5. I love all my arty friends~! They inspire me. 

Mandala Progress

My little art quilt group received a challenge from Karen, of Blue Pearl Yoga, to create Mandala's for an art show in her sitting room. Blue Pearl Yoga is housed in Batavias old Masonic Temple on Main St, a very grand interior.
I had my vision, but knew I could not get it done without my friend Julie's (Red-Dog Enterprises) help. Julie is very knowledgeable with Photoshop. We sat at her computer, manipulating, colorizing, changing, pulling and duplicating until we came up with this very personal symbolic mandala.
I plan to do much hand stitching and maybe add a few crystals. Not sure what else will happen with it, but it's a start!
We will have an artists reception on Friday, September 20. The show will be open for viewing until the end of October.

Yesterday, our guild meeting was held once again, at the Batavia Nursing Home on Bank St. The room is full of windows that look out onto a small garden area, the ceiling is high and the vibe is great in this space. After the meeting over 20 women stayed to participate in the 1st ever Jelly Roll Race! What fun was had by all. Lori, sporting her uber chic hairstyle, post chemo, was my table mate. While chatting and sewing we all managed to finish a "potato chip" quilt. Melanie and her mom, Mary Anne, had jelly rolls of 40 2 1/2" strips ready for us to piece. Quite an accomplishment and addition to the tally of community service quilts our guild makes and passes out to various charitable causes throughout the year. I hope we do this again!

And that said, I loved making it...the speed at which a very acceptable quilt comes from bits of fabric, that I spent 4 hours today cutting, stitching and ironing a quilt for Sophia!

I have a few projects in the works for a couple of shows RAFA will be participating in. The Rochester Lapidary Society has asked that we create works using gems, minerals or fossils, combined with fiber, to be exhibited at the show. I have a few idea's that will require me to do some things I haven't done before! I have a slice of a cool mineral that looked like a brain to me the minute I saw it. How cool is that?!
The other show will be at a relatively new, spectacular art gallery called Main Street Arts in Clifton Springs. No size restrictions and 3-D allowed. We can show pieces we have shown before but I would like to make something new. They want the works to be for sale. I would like to have "Deployment" finished for this show, but it will not be for sale.

Here is a midstream picture of my progress on it. Loving it. Much.

Mela at 3 weeks..

I have learned:

1. Ditched the Ruzzle app. You just use the same short words over and over. I found Hooked on Words More fun and challenging
2. Michael passed his JFO class. Much in the field testing. 
3. UB School of Dental Medicine is a gem of a facility. It is a teaching school for dentistry. I needed to have a tooth extracted, an emergency after a root canal start on Thursday revealed a crack that couldn't withstand a repair. I have been taking antibiotics for 5 weeks now and still, even after the tooth was pulled Friday, there is still signs of infection.
4. Kahlua on the rocks. Mmmm.

Screen Print Original

For years I have been intrigued by screen printing. I love the way it looks on fabric. This test print was on a piece of painted crinoline...just had to pull a quick one! Making my photo's into successful print making fodder has been on my "bucket list" forever. Last weekend I got to play!

My friend Julie had ordered some pre-emulsion coated sheets from Dharma, she has an exposure box, so we stumbled through a few snafu's, then voile! Success.
The sheets are great. They leave (when properly exposed to light) a sharp image for printing.
We found 10 minutes a good exposure time for these sheets.
We also realized that the rubber squeegee for pulling paint to print was cumbersome and an old credit card was much more conducive to pulling a good print.

The first few screens we took off the frame, taped all around with duct tape and pulled a print with that. We both liked the way a screen printed in the frame. It would be worth investing in another frame and changing them out. It only takes minutes to do this.
The image above was a doll face I took an iPhone pic of in a craft reuse store last Thursday. Julie helped me make it into a black & white image and added the dotted bit which really makes this cool. The actual burning of image is done with a printed acetate sheet.

I LOVE this whole process and idea. More will be in the making in the near future!

I would love to download my pics of all the creative endeavors of the weekend, but in true Kathi fashion, I left a part of me behind at Julie's.....my camera. It must mean something that I do this. Hhhmmm.

Mela is doing great! She is such a sweet natured baby.

So very precious! Wishing Melissa and Dave didn't  live 50 minutes away!

I have learned:

1. How to make my own silk screens!
2. Good movie..."Lord of War" with Nicholas Cage. 2005.
3. Great show on Netflix....."The United States of Tara". 
4. Alan, my kids' step-brother, will be deployed to AFG in October for 6 months. He is Air Force Reserves. 
5. Mmmm. Roasted kale.